Pretoria-based Zanchin Timbers whose innovative business model spans sawmilling, timber sales, dry-on-spec services, and value addition, broadens its ties with Wood-Mizer with an MP260 4-sided planer moulder to produce profiled components. 

Zanchin Timbers directors Annatjie and Hennie Visser occupy a rare position in the South African timber industry. 

Their experience over decades trading in the segment has afforded them elder statesman standing amongst peers, this giving the innovative business team the ability to steer Zanchin consistently towards increased opportunities. 

Hennie’s early association with Mondi’s drymill activities built his experience and gave him an eye for gaps in the timber market that innovative small businesses could fill. 

Annatjie’s can-do attitude, fast wit, and determination to succeed saw the director-pair launch Zanchin Timbers in 1993. 

Innovating a business

The new company first focussed on profiled timber, ceilings and panelling, the profiled components in part going to manufacturers producing storage and housing units called Wendy houses in South Africa. 

But the alert-to-opportunity business pair knew that profits would expand if they sourced wet-off-saw timber that they could dry in-house instead of buying dry timber from outside suppliers. 

A used kiln sourced from a sawmill near Piet Retief in one of South Africa’s key timber production areas, the Mpumalanga Highveld, allowed Zanchin to dry its timber.  

But the ever-restless business pair soon hunted for even larger margins.   

They knew that many manufacturers, sawmillers and timber retailers in South Africa and Africa do not have inhouse drying capacity.    

If Zanchin could dry their timber for them, these producers would benefit from expanded margins that resulted from more value addition and reduced operating costs made possible by Zanchin’s very competitive drying rates.  

Customers could also use Zanchin’s burgeoning timber marketing division to find buyers for their dried timber and products. Zanchin’s direct route to customers and flexible pricing quickly outperformed competitors with the business expanding yet again.     

Building with Wood-Mizer

With their drying service taking off, the fearless business pair next turned to even more business refinement.   

Instead of relying on timber suppliers from Africa to supply Zanchin with hardwoods from Africa and South Africa, Hennie and Annatjie started Zanchin’s sawmilling division in 2017.   

Headed up Hennie Visser Junior, the division’s sawmills in Botswana and Zambia with Zanchin invested in Wood-Mizer sawmilling capacity to produce their own sawn timber.    

 With Zanchin’s sawmilling division now supplying wet-off-saw tropical hardwoods to its drying, profiling and timber marketing divisions, the stage was set for even further growth, employment opportunities at all the divisions also improving lives and boosting local economic activity.   

The growth of Zanchin’s profiling division also saw the need for increased profiling capacity, the company’s decision to invest in a Wood-Mizer MP260 four-sided planer moulder allowing them to expand production at a fraction of the cost of larger planer moulder-type machines. 

Wood-Mizer MP260 – affordable industrial planing and profiling

“The decision to buy the MP260 was an easy one,” says Riaan Visser, Annatjie and Hennie’s son and co-director of Zanchin Timbers.     

“The unit gave us access to affordable planing and profiling capacity that cost far less than a heavy-duty moulder without compromising on quality and output,” Riaan continues. “With the MP260’s ability to lane and mould in one pass, we also needed fewer machines to produced ready-to-sell profiled product.     

Manufactured by Wood-Mizer to exacting European standards, the MP260 four-sided planer moulder is a versatile, compact machine engineered to allow for cost-effective planing and moulding with a large 4-sided cutting capacity of 260 mm x 100 mm.   

An easy-to-use centralised control panel allows the operator to start/stop all four cutters and power feed motors separately.   

It can produce a variety of professionally finished products including flooring and decking, planed boards, profiled mouldings, cabinet trim, panelling, door and window frames, and furniture components.   

The unit’s four cutter heads are all driven by 3 kW motors with five powered feed rollers (4 steel and one polyurethane) ensuring the smooth and precise movement of the workpiece through the unit. 

Optional 1.2 m long in and outfeed beds allows for the safe, convenient, and accurate positioning of components during in and outfeed for maximum accuracy and quality. infeed and outfeed of product  

A variable feed rate allows for feed speeds of between 2.5-14 m/minute. Height and width adjustments are easily made with manual hand cranks.    

The unit’s small footprint makes it easy to slot into existing production spaces with minimal interruption.    

The unit’s affordability also makes it easy for jobbing shops that run multiple batches with varying parameters to add the MP260 to their existing production line-up for more processing flexibility.   

The last take

Speaking to Annatjie Visser, it was hard not to be inspired.  She eats and breathes timber, her eyes shining when she comments, “we are still building this business after 30 years, and I love it.”